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| Richard Worth and Jordan Collver losing their convention virginity. |
Well, here it is our Thought Bubble blog post. In summary, it was one hell of an event. We were stationed over in The Royal Armouries (my former employers) on a table with the lovely Biz Horne. Our comics couldn't have clashed more. Ours is a classic comic affair promoting Victorian action adventure and moustaches, whilst Biz is trying to raise awareness of the very real and serious issue that can arise in forced marriages. Recipe for a comedy sitcom you say? Well yes. I think both team WaterCloset and Team FML had a good time and we got to get some exposure at our first ever con. Also Biz brought biscuits. My hero!
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| The lady Biz and myself on day one. |
Business went well, with a few friends coming to pick up their donation prizes and a few strangers buying the odd issue. We gave a couple of statements into the odd dictophone too! The vibe at Though tbubble is always great so although we weren't selling massively we were still very excited to be there. What happened next though was... intense. We hit the after party festivities around half eight having already had a celebratory curry and excited at the thought of being able to mingle with other creators. And that we certainly did. We ran into our omni-present, energetic, flip-flopped printer Stuart Gould of UKomics, and I finally got to meet the devilishly suave Simon Moreton of Smoo Comics who is in fact our very first publisher. We appeared in a Newspaper called The Sorry Entertainer, you should check it out! I also briefly chatted to Kieron Gillen on his way to the DJ booth. I've met Keiron before; I was drunk then too, and looked like this...
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| Travelling Man birthday celebration costume. |
For those of you who haven't read Phonogram Singles Club, that's me dressed as Seth Bingo, Gillen's douchebag DJ. Bumping into a creator dressed as one of his characters is a bit like standing at the front row of a gig in the band's t-shirt. It makes you look a bit crazy. Anyways, Kieron was very nice and dissapeared to go drop a dancefloor bomb. That left us to chat with Cameron Stewart. He was on the next table to us and at the party gave us some valuable tips on how to get our names out there. He also said that the comic "looks good" which will be going on issue two's cover. He's also Canadian, much like Jordan. They bonded.
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| Cameron Stewart, Eisner Winning well of advice to newbies and sayer of the word "Eh?" |
Whilst I'm talking about the afterparty its worth mentioning a number of things. Namely that the Jeramiah Weed Co. table giving away free cups of delicious sour mash and ginger ale helped to get the party started. A number of bizarre events followed. My good friend Nick Robinson (not the news guy) had to take his shoes of too dance as his shoes were hurting him. He's 6'7''.
This is what his shoes look like: Preposterous...
Here's what his shoes look like next to Jordans head:
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| Princess Leia, but not. |
The free drinks, which incidentally was only supposed to be one per guest, turned into several and resulted in me coaxing Jordan into dancing his weird marionette dance as I drunkenly chatted to strangers about any and everything. Photographic evidence can be found over on my facebook page but, unlike the fine beverages of sir Jeramiah Weed, aren't fit for public consumption. Needless to say, much of Team Water Closet ended up looking a bit like this...
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Sexy.
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Day two: The day of mist and hangovers
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| Day two: Hungover... enter: My recovery hat. |
The start of day two hurt alot. We'd lost a lot of pep, mostly due to lack of sleep, our new bestfriend Cameron Stewart was missing, and I'd given up trying to look presentable. But on the plus side day two was the day of strangers. Footflow was a bit slower, giving the chance for other creators to wander around in a similar haze, on the look out for something good to pick up. This meant we got to meet a lot of peple and spread our name a bit. Kieron Gillen even came back and bought an issue. Nice guy. Unfortunately Biz jumps ship slightly early meaning we had no biscuit based support, but on the upside when Cameron did arrive he flicked our buddy the bird which was hilarious. We managed to make it through the festival alive which is bonus. We made friends and got to show some strangers the book. We also got a few tips and tricks from the veterans which helped immensely. We're now on the lookout for more cons to hit up and shops that want to shelf our book.
Thought Bubble was my first ever convention a few years ago back when it was starting out. Now being on the other side of the table there makes me feel immensely proud -- its unlike any other convention. Everybody has a good time and whether you're there as a creator or not, there is always a very welcoming feeling. Fingers crossed we'll be there again next year . We've learned that despite the hard work we've already put into creating the comic, we've still got a lot of hard work to do. We've learned that getting hammered mid con isn't always a great idea, and that you should always take a closer look before buying a drink for a guy you only think is Tony Harris (when it really isn't). And most importantly we've learned that other creators are in the same boat as you (or were at some point) and are largely nice people who still love comics and want to check you (and your comics) out.
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